Production method for cobalt sulfate

Abstract

Provided is a method for separating impurities and cobalt without using an electrolysis process from a cobalt chloride solution containing impurities and producing a high purity cobalt sulfate. The production method for cobalt sulfate includes: a copper removal step (S) of adding a sulfurizing agent to a cobalt chloride solution containing one or more impurities of copper, zinc, manganese, calcium, and magnesium and generating a precipitate of sulfide of copper to separate to remove copper; a neutralization step (S) of adding a neutralizer or a carbonation agent to a cobalt chloride solution having undergone through the copper removal step (S) and generating cobalt hydroxide or basic cobalt carbonate to separate magnesium; a leaching step (S) of adding sulfuric acid to the cobalt hydroxide or the basic cobalt carbonate to obtain cobalt sulfate solution; and a solvent extraction step (S) of bringing an organic solvent containing an alkyl phosphoric acid-based extractant to the cobalt sulfate solution and extracting zinc, manganese, and calcium into the organic solvent to separate to remove zinc, manganese, and calcium. These steps are sequentially executed.